Eighty-seven years ago today (Thursday), on April 24 1916, a poet called Stephen McKenna stood outside the GPO in Dublin. He was listening to Padraig Pearse read the Proclamation of the Republic, and when Pearse had finished, McKenna said he didn't feel elated or patriotic, just sad. People around didn't seem particularly interested in what the republican leader was saying. They shrugged, sniggered, strolled away.
In contrast to Pearse, the words of another republican leader, Gerry Adams, were noted and parsed with great care at Carrickmore on Easter Sunday 2003, by friend and enemy alike. Pearse's words signalled the beginning of violent struggle in Ireland and the beginning of the end of the British Empire around the world. What did people expect Gerry Adams's words to signal?
If you asked a Fianna Fail Cabinet member or a leading UUPer or a leading SDLPer, they'd probably say it was to see if the Sinn Féin leader's speech contained a sign that the IRA's war was over. Bertie Ahern voiced the sentiments of the UUP and the SDLP, as well as those of Fianna Fail and the PDs, when he said at Wolfe Tone's grave last Sunday that republicans needed to move so that everyone else could move. The words of a republican leader could again shape Irish history, Bertie implied, this time by declaring not war but peace.
Which sounds good but in fact is bunkum. The medieval theologians who debated how many angels could dance on the head of a pin were men of rugged common sense compared to the political parties presently clamouring for the IRA to use this or that set of words.
Is it too late to hope that those involved in the dispute will get real?
Cover one eye, mount a fast-moving horse and you'd still see with total clarity that since the early nineties, republicans have turned towards politics and away from physical force. Do unionists, the SDLP, the Irish government believe that the IRA is planning to sail from Donegal and shoot them in their beds? No. Burst into their homes and kill them as they eat with their families? No. Throw blast bombs at their children as they go to school? No. Whether it dismays us or delights us, republicans are on the political path and there's no turning back.
That said, the SDLP, the Irish government and unionists aren't pretending when they say they fear republicans. They fear them quite a bit. But their fear is not in terms of what republicans may do through physical force.
It's in terms of what they may do through politics.
The SDLP have better reasons than most to be worried. In the last election Sinn Féin edged ahead of them, and most commentators believe further daylight will show between the two this time round. The veteran commentator Ed Moloney has declared that the SDLP is about to be consigned to the dustbin of history, and a considerable number in the SDLP are concerned he may be right. Of course the SDLP fear republicans.
In the south's general election Sinn Féin got less than 10% of the vote, but they moved from one to five TDs and polls show Gerry Adams as one of the most admired politicians in the country. Fianna Fail note what Sinn Féin did to Dick Spring in Kerry North and worry over who's next. Of course the Irish government fear republicans.
And the unionists? Well, the unionists say that republicans are just too in-your-face. All that open talk of Irish unity, all that criticism of the police and the justice system, all that starting their speeches in Irish. This new kind of nationalism is very skilful on TV, drives a hard bargain and refuses to be overawed by its betters. Of course unionists fear republicans.
And it's that undercurrent of fear which has driven the Irish government, the SDLP and the UUP to point to republicans as the creators of the present impasse. Let me say it again: the fear is not about violence. There's an election coming up, and when faced with a powerful political opponent, you reach for a big stick, and sticks don't come any bigger than the they're planning-to-go-back-to-violence stick.
Hit republicans with it often enough and who knows, it may halt their progress or at least slow it down. Because if they aren't stopped soon, something terrible may happen, north and south. Remember: Gerry Adams has said their ultimate ambition is not just to become the biggest Northern political party, but the biggest party on the island.
OK – what smart-arse first suggested republicans should abandon violence and enter politics? Own up, we won't hurt you.
